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Earth Witches series
Earth Witches series — by Lee Roland. Genres and Sub-Genres Urban Paranormal Romance / Urban Fantasy Romance * This series is Urban Paranormal Romance—what I call Soul-Mate Romance—not true Urban Fantasy. In each book, a couple meets, lusts after one another, and gets their HEA(Happily Ever After). ~ Fang-tastic Series Description or Overview ✥ "I would call the Earth Witch series Urban Fantasy with mild humor and a strong love story. The earth witches are keepers of the world’s magic. Servants of the Earth Mother, they battle men, monsters and personal conflicts to protect the world." ~ Interview with Urban Fantasy Investigations ✥ IN THE SMALL TOWN OF DUIVEL, MISSOURI, DARKNESS AWAITS... Cassandra Archer is the Huntress. She has faithfully served the Earth Mother for years, rescuing kidnapped children from monsters—both human and supernatural—dwelling in the abandoned ruins of the Barrows district of Duivel, Missouri. When Detective Flynn's twelve-year-old sister goes missing, he suspects she was taken to the Barrows, and he goes to Cass for help. The two clash, but Cass still finds herself irresistibly drawn to the tough, no-nonsense cop. After another child goes missing, all clues point to a cataclysmic event during the next dark moon. Cass and Flynn must race against the clock to save the children and prevent a sacrifice that could destroy the entire town.... ~ Viper Moon ~ Shelfari Lead's Species *Earth witches Primary Supe *Earth witches and Drows What Sets it Apart *not much—"interesting premise, weak follow through" Fang-tastic Narrative Type and Narrators First person narrator person narrative from various Leads: # Viper Moon: Cassandra Archer # Vengeance Moon: Madeline Corso # Vicious Moon: Nyx Ianira Books in Series Earth Witches series: # Viper Moon (2011) # Vengeance Moon (2012) # Vicious Moon (2013) Shorts, Novellas, Anthologies and Guides none yet World Building Setting * Duivel, Missouri Places: * Barrows District: dark, scary magical section of Duivel * Zombie Zone: #2 * Twitch Crossing, Georgia #3 * San Francisco, CA #3 Supernatural Elements ✥ Earth witches, Drows, monster hunters, ancient Earth Mother-Godess, demons, artifact called the Portal, teleportation, Marisol's grimoire, Glossary: * Drows: "invaders who slipped through places scattered across the earth where the boundaries between parallel worlds are weak." (p. 12) Drows can be killed only by bronze weapons. * The Portal: powerful magical artifact; The Portal was ripped from Madeline's mother's neck just after her death by her murderer; 'Groups & Organizations': * Sisters of Justice: For millennia we have served the ancient Mother Goddess. Ashera, Inaras, Ishtar, are but a few of a thousand names they have called the ancient Earth Mother, the Mother of Men. * Sisters of Justice Correctional College: run by an order of female warriors who have two primary tasks: policing the Earth Witches to eliminate those practicing dark magic and ridding the earth of the Drows. World ☆ The Sisters of Justice: : We are the Sisters of Justice. For millennia we have served the ancient Mother Goddess. Ashera, Inaras, Ishtar, are but a few of a thousand names they have called the ancient Earth Mother, the Mother of Men. Most of her servants see her as a nurturer, a giver of life. The Sisters of Justice see her darker image. Men will call her Kali—Kali the Destroyer. She hides that darker face and we are abandoned—save when she needs us. We are the last she calls, when all of her earth witches' gentle methods fail. We worship her. We despise her. We are her dark angels, her servants. Our blades are sharp and we strike upon her command. — Mother Evelyn 25 January, 1951 ~ FF In this world, the Earth Mother selects various young women to be her Huntresses—to rescue abused innocents and punish evildoers. As the series opens, the Mother's high priestess is Abby, who operates as a psychic for hire in small-town Duivel, Missouri. As a trade-off for dedicating her life to Mother, each huntress receives extra strength, speed, and stamina. Plus, she gets to live a dangerous existence on the brink of poverty. Here, one Huntress describes the Earth Mother to another Huntress: : "She's not human. She plots, plans, and schemes, never consistently. She sees possibilities of things to come and dumps one of us into the fray in hopes that things will turn out okay. There's not much you can do about it. She considers you hers, even if you never took a vow to serve her. She thinks meddling in your life is her right." (Vengeance Moon, p. 72) Duivel is separated into a mortal section and a dark, scary magical section called the Barrows. At the center of the Barrows is the Zombie Zone—the darkest, most dangerous part of the Barrows. Within the Barrows, the Mother has imprisoned her mortal enemy, the Darkness (aka Aiakós, the King of the Drows), who has no physical form (at least not until the end of book 1). Mortals who live in Duivel stay out of the Barrows because horrible monsters roam the streets and the sewers and the magical atmosphere play havoc with their memories. As one character explains, "The Earth Mother cast the spell over this area to protect outsiders. It's a world of its own now. People might see things here, but as soon as they look away, they forget everything." (Vengeance Moon, p. 32) Click HERE to read "A Completely Unsanctioned and Unofficial History of Duivel and the Barrows" on Roland's web site. ~ Fang-tastic Fiction: Lee Roland: EARTH WITCHES Protagonists ✥ Viper Moon #1: Cassandra Archer & Detective Flynn * Cassandra Archer spends much of her time rescuing kidnapped children from the Barrows. Cass lives in a decrepit apartment with her three magical pets: two snakes and a cat, all of whom apparently came to Cass from the Barrows. One of the snakes travels frequently with Cass and makes itself useful as a poisonous weapon against Cass's enemies. ~ Fangtastic * Phelan Flynn: Duivel police detective—asks Cass to rescue his missing sister, who has disappeared from the local mall. ~ Fangtastic ✥ Vengeance Moon #2: Madeline Corso & Michael aka "the Archangel" * Madeline Corso: "I'm 26 years old. I've spent the last six years in a combination prison/paramilitary training college, where they taught me how to do a lot of things, most of them not very nice. My mother was an earth witch..., my father a retired soldier turned restaurateur. One night when I was seventeen, three men came into our home and murdered them. I'm here looking for one of those men." (p. 89) What she doesn't tell Michael is that as her mother died, she placed a curse on Madeline (along with a scar on her cheek) that forces Madeline to track down and kill the three men who killed her mother. So far, it's two down, and one to go. Madeline's "training college" is the Sisters of Justice Correctional College. ~ Fangtastic * Michael aka "the Archangel": Michael is the son of Aiakós, the King of the Drows. That means that although Michael appears to be a handsome and charming human, he actually has a bestial side that comes out when he is angry or when he is forced to defend himself. ~ Fangtastic ✥ Vicious Moon #3: Nyx Ianira * Etienne * Nyx Ianira ex-soldier and earth witch who grew up in the tiny town of Twitch Crossing, Georgia.Nyx is the chief investigator and part-owner of a private investigation firm in San Francisco, solving cases with her intelligence, her guns, and a little bit of magic. Nyx is an untrained earth witch who turned her back on her fiery magical heritage ten years ago when she ran away from home and went off into the world to make her own way. Fangtastic ✥ Nyx joined the army to escape the ridged rules of her family and coven. She’s made a life for herself as a private investigator. Nyx is called home by her grandmother and then sent to find her sister Marisol. Marisol has gone to the city of Duivel, Missouri to study with another witch and is missing. — Nyx is always With human beings and human nature, never and always are concepts riddled with exceptions. For Nyx, her magic is her best and worst weapon. It is in her genetic makeup. It never leaves her but often fails her when she needs it most. ~ Interview - Manga Maniac Cafe * Etienne: Nyx meets her match in Etienne, a man who has walked in the shadowy world of mercenary soldiers and criminal enterprises. ~ Manga Maniac Cafe Etienne despises witches—all witches—because of a horrific experience he had with a witch several years ago. Also, he is completely immune to magic. In fact, when Nyx touches him very gently with her magic, it rebounds on her with a hundred times the power she used. ~ Fangtastic Book Cover Blurbs ✤ BOOK ONE—Viper Moon (2011): Cassandra Archer is the Huntress. She has faithfully served the Earth Mother for years, rescuing kidnapped children from monsters-both human and supernatural-dwelling in the ruins of the Barrows District. But when two children are kidnapped under similar circumstances, all clues point to a cataclysmic event on the next dark moon. Now Cass must race against the clock and prevent a sacrifice that could destroy the entire town... ~ FF — GR ☆ Viper Moon: Excerpt ✤ BOOK TWO—Vengeance Moon (2012): “On my seventeenth birthday, my mother’s last gift to me was a vision of death—and a curse…” Madeline Corso can’t rest until she hunts down the three unknown assailants who killed her father and witch mother. Two of them are now dead by her hand. But the third eludes her while she serves time with the Sisters of Justice—a mysterious order of female warriors with ties to her mother. The Sisters have tracked the last murderer to Duivel, Missouri, and the dark underworld of the Barrows. But Madeline’s release is contingent on her fulfillment of a mission for the Sisters. Madeline doesn’t question them, but once in the Barrows, she discovers that things aren’t what they seem. Can she rely on Michael, a handsome and enigmatic local businessman, to help her navigate a world of men and beasts? Or will she lose her heart before the mission is complete? ~ GR ☆ Excerpt ✤ BOOK THREE—Vicious Moon (2013): "A powerful witch might live a long time, but a single well-placed bullet could change that. While my preferred weapon was magic, I was not averse to shooting anyone or anything offering my sister or me harm." Ex-soldier and earth witch Nyx Ianira is working as a PI in San Francisco when she sees the last thing she ever wants to see: the Sisters of Justice - the mysterious earth witch police force. A Triad of Sisters usually means an execution mission, but the Sisters' only goal is to capture and escort Nyx across the country. Nyx is badly needed back in Twitch Crossing, Georgia, the place she ran away from ten years ago to escape the stiff rules and duties of being a true witch. She wanted a life of her own. Now she's being dragged back to her swampy hometown because another life is in danger: Her little sister is missing, and Nyx is the only one who can track her down in Duivel, Missouri. But the key to finding her may lie with dark and tempting Etienne - a sinister criminal with a fearsome reputation, a ruthless attitude, and a total immunity to magic.... ~ FF — GR — Long Synosis ☆ Excerpt Category:Series